³And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.

²³Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

¹⁴For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; neither doth God respect any person: yet doth he devise means, that his banished be not expelled from him.

²¹And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

¹³For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,

¹⁷There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.

¹⁸There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.

¹⁹The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.

¹Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?

⁸The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not.

⁹As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more.

¹⁰He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.

²¹Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

²²A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

⁵Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;

⁶Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.

⁷For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

¹⁹The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.

²⁰Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

²¹His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

¹³If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness.

¹⁴I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

¹⁶They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

²³One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

²⁵And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.

²⁶They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

³²Yet shall he be brought to the grave, and shall remain in the tomb.

³³The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every man shall draw after him, as there are innumerable before him.

²³For I know that thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

¹⁴If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath;

¹⁵All flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust.

¹⁸Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.

¹⁹Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.

¹⁷Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

⁵For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?

⁴Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

⁹What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

⁴LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.